his military is guarding one of the biggest. mining deal with. global. head of e.u. budget talks. on the artistic director of moscow's famous bolshoi ballet has to germany for specialist treatment saying he knows who's behind. him from two weeks ago.

thank you so much for joining us here today. worldwide news. the president has confirmed that french troops have been guarding one of his country's biggest raney of mines in a bid to avoid a repetition of last month's hostage crisis in neighboring algeria. thomas filled me in on all the details. the mine in question is of the facility a location in which the french company a revenue has a large stake it's important to know that this is the second mission in africa completely separate from france's mission in mali which has been going on for nearly a month as neighbors mali and the situation there continues to remain unstable the french government is making it clear that they are ready and willing to protect their assets in the region and on the african continent as a whole protecting assets in the region many know that france gets most of its energy from nuclear power hence the uranium is very very important indeed so massive economic concerns are indeed but as you also mention that we've called the

french led multinational intervention going in mali now boots on the ground in nigeria it's certainly getting a lot of reaction from critics around the world at the moment certainly has been if you ask france they've pointed to the incident that happened last month in eastern algeria when islam ists took over a gas plant there eventually leading to forty eight people being killed thirty seven of those foreign workers france's predicting that more islamist retaliation to french presence in africa is likely and they say they want to prevent a tragic situation like this from happening again but then again is the world's fifth largest producer of uranium a product that is vital to the french economy in fact it's estimated that nearly all or at least seventy five percent of france's electric infrastructure is dependent on nuclear power given this it makes sense that france would want to protect that resource at all cost the president has welcomed the french presence in the country and recognizes the need for the have and security but has also stated

that they want to better deal when it comes to uranium exports meijers economy is also largely dependent on your radio as well critics have already been wary of french involvement in mali claiming that the real motivation is a return to imperialism economic policy and a stronger control of a region that used to be french territory now with france's expansion into neighboring countries compiled with president expressing his concerns those critics now. i have a bit more that they can chew on. so i don't let's get some more analysis now here on r.t. and our speaker john locke linder the director of studies the is it of democracy and cooperation in paris or joining us live from the program thanks very much for coming on so quickly do you really think it's just as simple as all that the issue of protecting france's economic interests. as a part of it that explains part of it doesn't it i mean it's no secret as you said in your report that new shape is a big exporter of uranium there have been discoveries of gas and oil in mali

itself so yes the energy factor explains a lot in international politics but i think there are other factors as well and i think the two main factors in this are france's own desire to strengthen the whole role on the international stage in particular piece of you know european partners and also the american strict budget plans for africa it's important to know that america which strongly supports france in this mali and intervention and who sent joe biden the vice president to paris even as i'm speaking to you know. america has plans for establishing a military presence in the military control over the whole of the african continent the structure in question is known as afrikaans and one has to i think speculate that america might be interested together with britain and france in establishing some kind of permanent military presence in the continent where as i'm sure many of

your you viewers know china has been establishing an economic presence now very successfully for a large number of years so john you're talking about a lot of a geo strategic positioning here many of also talked about how our ultimately our africa the continent is an untapped source of what some call the world's biggest amount of natural or mineral wealth there we know that france is leading the campaign into mali america is offering logistic support. prime minister cameron has now sent over three hundred of troops to be boots on the ground as well it does appear that has turned from a unilateral intervention to now a multilateral multinational force led by the french are we talking about securing vast mineral wealth there or what else can we read into it how else well we are indeed observing as you say in your question a pattern that was established really in the libya campaign in two thousand and eleven when as your viewers will remember france took the lead britain joined in very quickly and america america came in as it were on their coattails some people

speculated and used the phrase that this was america leading from behind that america decided to put forward its european allies to do as it were its dirty work is it just a grab for resources yes it's obvious that the securing of energy resources is one of the key factors behind many if not most political developments today and this fact frankly is that meeting for instance find nato which declares the securing of energy resources to be one of its legitimate policy goals in its own official documents but as i say i think we have to also look at this as a potential which has been undertaken for internal french and internal european policy reasons france militarily until two thousand and eleven when it invaded when it attacked together with britain and america and indeed the whole need to win it's a libya to overthrow the deathy france had not had a very great military presence and i think there must have been people in paris who

were wondering why the only military the active country in europe was the united kingdom the united kingdom undertook a large number of military operations in the period. from the late john to john i'm so sorry i do apologize i just want to jump in here quickly because you're bringing out very very interesting points about how whether it's a western europe or even america trying to get involved here in mali what about her . you know in the region for example nigeria we know we've got french troops on the ground there protecting a uranium mine nigeria's president hu's me someone say nice as president says that he could be looking to renegotiate local mining deals with other global partners possibly that of china now if indeed your rights and america and european powers are trying to get a solid ground there boots on the ground there in nigeria and in mali what does china think about all this well i mean there is a scramble for africa isn't china has been as it were peacefully colonizing africa

for a number of years there are large economic interests chinese in all over the african continent many of them connected with energy and so the president to me she says this kind of thing it is obviously a sort of brinkmanship he's obviously trying to build up the price between two rivals. and that's why i say that the of course the issue of. carbons and uranium and other energy sources is a key and may even be the decisive factor but as i say there are also even broader strategic issues including the desire which i believe to be the case on the part of america to have permanent military bases in africa it'll be like iraq you know there's a terrorist threat to them and edge terrorist threat a military operation and that leads to permanent bases and this is been the pattern of interventions of american intervention and western intervention generally now for taking me not just in afghanistan and iraq but in many many countries around the world as well let's let's bring up the issue here is we know that france is

ultimately leading the cat the campaign in mali an easier but as many know france as a commie continues to stumble do you really think paris can afford such an aggressive state of foreign policy at this point no i mean i don't think paris can afford anything at the moment the labor minister famously said ten days ago that the country was bankrupt but i don't think that european politicians. in that sense the rational i think they and that's what that's partly why i'm a little skeptical of these very rational explanations for these interventions such as the desire to control resources and very often really more struck by the short term nature of decision making and i think as i say that there could well be some rivalry i'm sure there is between britain and paris between britain and france on this the idea is to beef up france's military profile on the european stage and of course also to strengthen president or along its own standing know within france

itself. the director of studies at the institute of the mocker see and cooperation in paris it's getting interesting i hope to see you in the future thanks for coming on. while meanwhile here in northeastern mali french jets have carried out a series of air strikes on the bases and fuel depots of islamic terrorists and with the intervention now headed towards the desert and away from the cities r.t. reports on what's left on the ground after the liberating troops move on. francoise hollande victorious trip to timbuktu marked a declaration that three major cities in northern mali have been declared liberated from rebels although the sharia law and islamic extremism of the rebels and forced will not soon be forgotten nevertheless this victory is a partial one the militants have merely retreated and fled and the suffering in this war has seems disproportionate to the gains made we're learning what happened in battle day by day in the town of kona like we heard stories from the fog of war

this is small settlement in the mopti region was seized by the more yo tribe they fled to the north when french troops showed up but it's reported that the cost of that victory was high while french planes killed only two rebels the number of civilian casualties was an estimated fourteen he said i wasn't home when the bombing began i started praying when i learned my house was under attack they ruined everything i had my family and my livelihood my wife's name was i mean she was forty my son ali was eleven when adam was ten and so you know who was six they all died. people such as this farmer idris ask themselves if the victory was worth it. we also met the campo family who had suffered badly when the bombing began everyone scatter it the compo lost two of their son of unable to swim

they drowned in the river in the fighting. we also heard the story of a young mother who died from shelters leaving three children behind a newborn baby. the village was a complete mess it's impossible to describe a lonely discuss things i know for sure and i can say that all we had it's gotten. there's no few people the same kids came running up to us and said their mums who donated i brought them to our house their mother died after an hour of cleaning too like the children have nobody else but us screaming as they're going to disaster visited every house in the town people reject anything the military claims about victory and say war crimes must be prosecuted under the geneva convention towns like qana want more than just compassion people who suffered at the hands of terrorist groups and drug traffickers are now facing the misery inflicted by warfare. body without gonzalo one. for r t

of course r.t. is coming to life from moscow just days ahead of crucial e.u. budget talks the leader of the blocks toughest economy is meeting the head of one of its weakest german chancellor angela merkel will join forces there spain's prime minister mariano hoeing to discuss the eurozone crisis is facing massive criticism back home with corruption allegations on the opposition calling for him to step down this report from r.t. as our peter all of us in ballen. it could very well be called a meeting between the euro zone's haves and twelve quite frankly the have nots as german chancellor angela merkel sits down to talks with the spanish prime minister mariano what are quite germany still widely regarded as the euro zone's only real success economically while as many fear that spain could go the way of greece now the spanish prime minister will receive the full welcome of germany including

full military honors how are they if he was to turn up at the doorstep of many in his own country he may face severe criticism that's because many spanish citizens still think he hasn't done enough to deal with bank has the same basically the bearings are of this huge incredible fiefs run only by greed the government's not helping the people the topping the banks it has been at least thirty or fifty times the issue but in the last month it was three people they were going to be if you have to find out how it is but they hang themselves before the police were right there. really any i feel really sad when someone is thrown out because he has no one who can take care of him. this meeting between the leaders of germany and spain comes ahead of a very important summit taking place this week where european leaders will try and decide on the budget something which is separated countries within the union

thus far. economics professor at boston university laurence kotlikoff believes the crisis is rooted in the way the banking system is operated in an interview with sophie shevardnadze you said that banks need to be more transparent in order to gain the people's trust. the critical banking system the model is one of very high leverage banks borrow a lot of money promised to repay and then there's opacity they take their money and they do something with it but they don't tell you what they're doing with it so it's a very unstable situation when you promise people things and then you don't know what you're doing with their money and then and that's what happened with lehman brothers and sterns and. merrill lynch and all these companies that one on one under one after the other everybody started worrying because they couldn't see

the assets so what we need to do is. get rid of this faith based banking we need to have. no leverage and we have to have transparency. so good to have you with us here on r.t. today still ahead for you in. the pursuit of guilt. subject a polygraph test now and guilty until proven innocent a cia veteran points the finger at his former employers saying the agency's compulsory polygraph tests the lore and simply in effect if we bring you the full details in just a couple of minutes. we

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old free broadcast live video for your media projects a free media. this is our t. with me will receive the artistic director of moscow's while shoaib ballet is now traveling to germany for specialist treatment after a volley. talk against him just over two weeks ago doctors there will be trying to help save sort of a few pins eyesight. reports from the moscow hospital. is doing rather well surprisingly well actually he did thank the doctors for doing everything in their power to pull him out of a very difficult situation that he found himself in. third degree burns and those are very severe to his face and he said he's full of hope for a full recovery and he is full of willpower and he actually looked very

enthusiastic and upbeat about the whole situation of course considering his circumstances actually he did appear to be quite so on his road to recovery he did speak about person who is who has been supposedly behind the attack he did say that he knows exactly who it was on this particular day today they did not want to talk about the investigation at all so as not to interfere with the investigation he did however mention. he did to receive threats before but he also mentioned and this is important according to feeling himself he didn't mention that he's continuing to work with everybody who has been left in charge. he said that nothing about the boise theater is changing and the performances and everything about the theater will be carrying on before. what a just a moment on the day for now though in kuwait an opposition activist has reportedly

been sentenced to five years in prison for this for criticizing the country's unelected ruler on twitter is the third time a person has been convicted on charges in the country in just the last two months now speaking out against the mayor of kuwait is considered a state security charge i missed international recently. for increasing where strictures on freedom of expression and assembly protests have been raging against the government and its crackdown on dissent this is about a two thousand and eleven attention even more often. boycotted by the opposition m.p. claims the country's democracy has been disfigured. and if. we refute claims that the national assembly represents the people of kuwait around seventy percent of the people boycotted the election and they simply itself was elected thanks to an unconstitutional decree passed by the government which wanted to parliament it could control its lawmakers have failed to address widespread

allegations of corruption democracy in kuwait has taken a twisted form it is the only democracy which is seeing an increase of corruption we will continue to hold peaceful marches peaceful rallies and we will continue to gather and protest. yet another. having its own problems with the opposition as we get into the world we're talking about. the regime protesters there of once again clash with police in various parts of the country in the authorities used tear gas against the crowds which. the cracking down on. us for two years arresting thousands including some very famous activists the government claims it's taken steps to address the brutality of the security forces but opposition campaigners say daily assaults continue unabated. and the number of dead from a suicide bomb attack on a group of anti al-qaeda fighters has risen to nineteen more than forty others were

wounded the incident took place as men gather to collect their salaries outside an office just north of baghdad and the blast comes a day after several suicide attackers targeted a provincial police headquarters in qatar cook killing at least fifteen and wounding many more. a skeleton found under a car park in the city of leicester in the u.k. has been confirmed as that of king richard the third the monarch was the last english king to be killed in battle back in fourteen eighty five but his grave was lost in the sixteenth century after the demolition of the church he was buried next to and the remains will be reinserted unless the cathedral is details of the real burial ceremony yet to be released. thousands of people in america are forced to undergo polygraph testing every year all the name of national security. ringing the alarm over u.s. federal agencies exceeding their legal and ethical limits to determine who can be

trusted more in this to marina porter. for more than three decades john sullivan worked as a polygraph examiner for america's central intelligence agency today the retired cia employee is offering some strong opinions about the nation's lie detector policy too many honest people are too many people who should be passing their tests aren't and i and there's no there's no accountability for that. last year more than seventy three thousand americans were reportedly required to undergo polygraph tests in order to get or keep jobs with the federal government according to an investigation by mcclatchy newspapers a growing number of u.s. agencies are asking employees and applicants intimate questions that extend way beyond the realm of national security probing matters such as sexual conduct financial matters and past personal relationships

a woman was pressured to talk about her experience being molested as a child and when the polar bear for said that he refused to go on with the interrogation he alleges that he was pressured to go back and continue interrogating or a decade ago the national academies an organization advising washington on scientific matters urged the feds to stop using polygraphs as a screening technique scientists found that polygraphs aren't reliable enough to prevent innocent people from failing and deceptive candidates from passing i think it's important to understand that the polygraph is not just. for screening it's an interrogation tool. there's a question that the trip that leads to. the drilling down. question that they get asked may

well be quite true over the past ten years. at least fifteen federal agencies including the n.s.a. and f.b.i. have reportedly continued or expanded their polygraph screenings with nearly five million people having access to classified information or washington maintains that polygraph testing is the most effective way from preventing secrets from being leaked lisa ribicoff is an independent polygraph examiner and investigator who uses the polygraph program designed by homeland security she contends that it's ninety eight percent accurate i do think that there are some questions pertaining to some emotional aspects and personal situations should not be included but i do understand why they're included on the basis of that the government needs to see how exactly what their breaking point is what are they willing to discuss what are they not willing to discuss however applicants who are denied a coveted position after failing a polygraph are prohibited from accessing the records of their interrogation and

are often barred from contesting the results or filing complaints in federal court in two thousand and four the cia veteran who conducted lie detector interrogations for thirty one years failed his own screening there was absolutely no question that the test was wrong. was a terrible test sullivan lost his security clearance and was denied a job with a federal contracting agency he claims his examiner falsified the results possible retribution for sullivan book detailing america's polygraph system subs a come in for a polygraph test now are guilty until proven innocent and i think that's. a corruption and an abuse of the process the obama administration is now promising to draft a new national polygraph policy that would prevent agencies from pushing legal or ethical boundaries during screenings but at the moment the program has no oversight or accountability meaning tens of thousands of u.s.

citizens will continue getting personally probes in the name of the. national security bring up or not martini or. or for full on a recap of the week's top sporting highlights could partners joins us in just a moment.